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DEWmocracy
DEWmocracy is a marketing promotion that involves Mountain Dew fans designing new flavors to be made, one of which will go on to become permanent. DEWmocracy 1 In November 2007, PepsiCo launched a new Mountain Dew marketing campaign. This campaign was given the name "DEWmocracy", tying the words Dew and Democracy together, as the campaign centralled around the idea of Dew drinkers designing the next permanent flavor on the line. DEWmocracy was released in various phases, each leading to the conception of new Dew flavors. The first phase of DEWmocracy began with the release of an official website, a short film, and even an online role-playing game. The short film starred actor/director Forest Whitaker, who was in search of a mystical drink that would save the world from the corperate takeover that oppresses creativity. The online game involved creating a profile and traveling to 7 different levels to play mini-games in order to earn points. While doing this, each player selects attributes that they believe would make the perfect Mountain Dew drink (flavor, logo, name, color, etc.) When phase two began in January 2008, three flavor finalists had been chosen, but no other attributes were given to them. The second phase revolved primarily around recruiting other people to join in on the DEWmocracy campaign. In the end, the three flavors had been given fan-chosen names, colors, and overall designs. These three drinks were Voltage, SuperNova, and Revolution. All three were released to the public during the summer of 2008, and drinkers were given the objective to go to the official website and vote for which flavor they liked most. This lasted until the end of July, and Voltage was announced to be the official winner on August 19, 2008. DEWmocracy 2 In 2009, the second DEWmocracy campaign began with a tour to 17 cities in America. The people living in these cities were given the chance to taste many new flavors of Mountain Dew, and a select few people were sent kits of the new flavors. At this point in the campaign, none of the flavors had specific designs, colors, or even names. They were instead known by flavor number. After the tour and sampling were complete, three flavors proceded to the finals, and were given flavor descriptions and colors: Lime Blasted Dew (Deep Green), Punch of Tropical Dew (Cloudy Red), and Smooth Citrus Dew (White). Next, panels were held to decide on names for the three finalists. The names chosen were Distortion, Typhoon, and White Out. The final step was comming up with designs and promotions for the three finalists by reaching out to the Dew fan population's artists. On April 19, 2010, Mountain Dew Distortion, Typhoon, and White Out were released to the public market, and just as in DEWmocracy 1, drinkers were encouraged to go online and vote for their favorite. The statistics changed rapidly over the course of the voting period, and voting closed in mid June 2010. Immidiately after voting ended, White Out was announced to be the winner, and the final statistics were announced: White Out had won 44% of the votes, Typhoon had 40%, and Distortion had 16%. Future Brett O'Brien, the Marketing Director for Mountain Dew reportedly said in an interview that since the first two DEWmocracy's increased many sales, a third one may occur during the summer of 2012. This is of yet unconfirmed. Many fans online express their desire for a "Looser's competition" that would give all of the flavors from DEWmocracy's 1 and 2 that did not receive enough votes to become a permanent flavor a second chance. This would pit Revolution, SuperNova, Typhoon, and Distortion against eachother. Legacy Just because a flavor loses in DEWmocracy does not mean it is locked away in the vault forever never to be heard from again. In 2011, Mountain Dew began it's FanDEWmonium campaign to decide the next permanent diet flavor (much like DEWmocracy, but on a smaller level). The two finalists were, in fact, Diet versions of flavors from DEWmocracy I - Voltage and SuperNova. Diet SuperNova won. During the summer of 2011, Mountain Dew started it's "Back by Popular DEWmand" promotion, and re-released three flavors that it's fans have been demanding since they were taken off the shlelves. These three flavors were Pitch Black from Halloween of 2004, and the runner-up from each DEWmocracy: SuperNova and Typhoon. Also during 2011, Mountain Dew launched it's "Throwback Shack" website, which gives visitors a chance to enter to win many Mountain Dew items of intrest, including a "secret stash" of Revolution that may or may not be expired. Category:Campaigns